Wednesday, March 19, 2008

veil touches manali

enter the town. a handful of kilometers behind us, a landslide takes down four carloads of people. cross the bridge. see an old donkey being disposed off - one small push, and he tumbles down the mountainside. the town is a clutter of rushed architecture and changing demographic profile - but some laws of living and dying remain the same. watched yaks amble past the hidimba temple. overheard a slow swaying conference of fir canopies. it is snowing in the mountainline above-head. my reading companion is the epic. fitting.

bhim's consort she was, the beautious hidimba. though whether the epic appropriated an existing local goddess or not i do not know. even duryodhan has a temple to his name in uttar kashi. all you need to do in order to find a villain, is to step over and be on the other side of the story.

planning to touch as many co ordinates of the epic as seem necessary. the most compelling things are connected to the riverside though - i may not need to wander too far. return to the river after generations, after wars, to offer prayer, to make significant revelations.

Review of Kari in The Weekhttp://week.manoramaonline.com/cgi-bin/MMOnline.dll/portal/ep/theWeekContent.do?BV_ID=@@@&contentType=EDITORIAL&sectionName=TheWeek%20Lifestyle&programId=1073755413&contentId=3754391

the funny thing is, other than you and amulya, who got there first - *everyone* seems to be passing out borrowed verdicts. some are borrowed right off my own blog. (why bother having an individual opinion when you can borrow the author's own self-flagellation and thought process? lol). another person said i have referenced cezanne and that my artwork looks like early dave mckean. huh?!! i'm all for critique, but i am also all for good homework!